Lethal Ingestion

I haven’t yet met a person who doesn’t like chocolates. I know they exist–these aberrations of human evolution–but I do not know anyone who wouldn’t melt at the thought of a nice simple chocolate bar or a wafer-thin after dinner mint or a perfectly made dark chocolate truffle.

So it was not at all difficult to convince three friends to join me in what must be the ultimate chocolate fantasy: a chocolate buffet at the lobby of The Peninsula Manila.

There are chocolates, and there are chocolates, of course; and although any (well, almost any) chocolate is better than no chocolate at all, I must admit that The Peninsula chocolates are something else–let me just say they deserve a buffet all their own.

Set up discreetly at one end of the lobby, you will first be attracted by the beautiful bouquets of red roses. Then you spot the large dark chocolate sculptures, so tempting it was only my friend Mary’s stern warning that kept me from breaking off a large chunk.

But the buffet spread has more than enough to make you giddy. Chocolate soup in little shot glasses (a tad too sweet, even for me). Chocolate mousse in lovely demitasse cups (ahh...much better ). Chocolate orange terrine (yum yum...). Chocolate bread pudding, chocolate crepes filled with white and milk chocolate creme , and a pot of the silkiest, shiniest dark chocolate in which to dunk bits of fruit (but where are the strawberries?!) and cake (I could really get to like this...).

There’s a wonderful little mound of a chocolate souffle that easily rivals the fondue for the best of the buffet. My friend Hugo, who had declared several samplings earlier that he had had enough, had to literally eat his words with his souffle and skulk over to the buffet table to get his own souffle after I made him take a bite of mine.

Always something to smile about are the hand-made truffles, especially the dark chocolate ones. This tradition, started at the venerable Peninsula Hong Kong (but alas, no longer made in-house there), has kept up its original high standards in the Chocolate Room at The Peninsula Manila, where the "Chocolate Girls"–five of them hearing impaired–turn out these heavenly confections.

There was more on the buffet table, like mud cake, macadamia fudge cake and chocolate cherry almond cake which were tempting, but this experience was crossing the line into lethal indigestion that we were all forced to call it quits.

Just because it tastes so good the assumption is that chocolate is bad for you. "Deadly" and "sinful" are two words very often used with chocolate. Fact is though, chocolate is good for you–body, soul and chemical balance.

Research shows that chocolate (especially the luscious dark variety), like red wine, contains a good amount of flavonoid phenolics, thus contributing to lowering the risks of heart disease.

More than comfort food, chocolate is feel good food. You eat chocolates when you feel blue, and it makes you feel better. You eat chocolates when you feel good, and it makes you feel even better. Chocolates give you an endorphin boost, the happy chemical in the brain that also in-creases after...a good work-out.

Whether it’s a box of chocomallows or chocnuts or hand-made Belgian truffles, you give chocolates when you want to tell a person he/she is special–your favorite kid, a boy/girl friend or one hoping to become a boy/girl friend, or somebody nice–even if (or especially if) that person is yourself.

Ancient folks drank chocolate, but it was a privileged brew. The Aztec king Montezuma drank cup after cup of xocolatl–the Aztec word ironically meaning "bitter water" from which the modern word "chocolate" derives–a liquid so precious it was served in golden goblets that were thrown away after one use.

The Aztec and Mayan civilizations, in fact, used cacao beans as money. When Hernando Cortez conquered the Aztec empire, he brought the precious bean to Europe as a gift to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

The bitter brew, however, was initially not very popular over in Europe, until the Spaniards added water and cane sugar, heated the mixture and came up with the original "chocolate eh".

All this talk of chocolate is making me hungry. A piece of that chocolate souffle or even just a truffle or two would be just perfect right now.

The Chocolate Buffet at The Peninsula Manila is on every Friday and Saturday night from 8:30 p.m. to 12 midnight until September 25. P495++ per person, with a cup of tea or coffee, and unlimited calories.